News
08/02/10 - UFC officially joins forces with Marine Corps
The Marine Corps has formed a formal partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in a bid to recruit more fans of the UFC into the corps. Under the new deal, there will be recruitment advertisements “that emphasize similarities between the two organizations”.
Mixed martial arts forms part of the Marine Corps’ hand-to-hand combat training and the Corps is also keen to play up the “sense of shared brotherhood” between the “warriors” in the UFC and the Marines alike. A spokesman for the Marines said both soldiers and fighters “are very intense people who like to push their limits, and they focus hard on training and believe in commitment, honor and courage.”
“The ideologies behind UFC and the Marine Corps now are very similar in a lot of ways — not just in the fighting techniques and mixed martial arts aspect, but … we both share that warrior ethos,” the spokesman added.
One of the new recruitment advertisements that has been produced under the deal has already been seen several times during UFC pay-per-views and features alternating images of marines on operations and fighters battling in the Octagon.
A voiceover explains that “becoming a warrior means joining a brotherhood, proven on the field of battle. A true warrior is measured not only by his strength but his honor. Some warriors fight in the octagon, others fight in all four corners of the earth. Every warrior lives for the fight.”
Reaction to the deal has generally been positive across the various mixed martial arts message boards, although the UFC’s popularity with young viewers has led some to question whether it is appropriate for them to be exposed to armed forces recruitment drives. But on the whole, the mixed martial arts community seems to approve of the partnership, which is a multi-year deal.
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